The latest comScore data is good news for Facebook, ranking the site as the sixth most popular website in the world with 275 million unique users each month. That exceeds the 200 million user mark that Facebook recently made public, but regardless of different metrics the trends are interesting here.Facebook now accounts for 4.1 minutes of every 100 minutes we spend online, which is a sign that we are using the site more deeply – or just getting lost because of that new design. The site accounts for more than 30% of all time spend on social networking sites, up from just over 12% a year earlier.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/apr/15/facebook-socialnetworkingTwitter Growth Surges 131% In March
Twitter’s popularity is surging, thanks in part to constant news stories about Twitter’s surging popularity, stories not unlike this one.According to ComScore Media Metrix data for March, the number of visitors to Twitter.com reached 9.3 million, an increase of more than 5 million visitors, or 131%, from February.
www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500968Facebook Ranks as Top Social Networking Site in the Majority of European Countries [news release]
comScore, Inc. today (April 15) released an analysis of Facebook’s growth in Europe during the past year. As the popular social networking site has increasingly focused its attention on global expansion and increased penetration across countries and regions, the site has catapulted to the #6 ranked Web property worldwide with 275 million visitors in February, a 175-percent increase versus year ago. One of the global regions that best illustrates Facebook’s growth is Europe, where the site has seen a 314-percent increase to nearly 100 million visitors.Not only does Facebook have a growing audience, it is also a highly engaged audience with the average user spending three hours per month on the site. One year ago, Facebook usage accounted for 1.1 percent of all minutes spent online in Europe, but by February 2009 that number had increased to 4.1 percent of all minutes. Facebook also accounts for a full 30.4-percent of minutes spent in the social networking category, up from 12.3 percent a year earlier.”Facebook has very quickly taken a leading position across most of the European social networking market despite having a strong foothold in just a few European countries one year ago,” said Mike Read, comScore Managing Director of Europe. “Over the course of the past year, it has climbed the rankings in virtually every market and taken over the top position in several. Most recently, Facebook grabbed the top position in Spain after nipping at the heels of a leading local player for the past several months.”Facebook Leads in Spain, Most of the Rest of EuropeFacebook has taken a leading position in the social networking category across the majority of countries in Europe in recent months. Of the 17 European countries individually reported by comScore, Facebook owned the top position in the social networking category in 11 of them. The site’s audience is largest in the U.K. with 22.7 million visitors (up 75 percent versus year ago), followed by France with 13.7 million visitors (up 518 percent) and Turkey with 12.4 million visitors (year ago data not available).Most recently, Facebook captured the top spot in the Spanish market in February with 5.7 million visitors, representing a dramatic tenfold increase versus year ago. It has also soared in Italy, growing more than 2,700 percent to 10.8 million visitors.

The only countries in which Facebook does not hold the #1 or #2 position in the social networking category are Germany, where it ranks fourth, Russia (#7) and Portugal (#3).This comScore news release was sourced from:
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2774